The UK鈥檚 , one of the largest independent potato packers in the country, utilizes 鈥檚 Herbert OCULUS optical sorters to automate defect removal for potatoes, enhancing efficiency.聽
鈥淏efore Herbert OCULUS, we were sorting by hand, but that was getting increasingly difficult as the labor market got tighter and extreme weather began making incoming product quality more variable. We wanted to automate sorting to take some pressure off our workforce at the same time we wanted to improve the consistency of our final product quality when incoming defect loads would spike,鈥� says David Elvidge, Cockerill鈥檚 operations manager.聽
Installed at Cockerill鈥檚 retail packing facility in York, UK, five Herbert OCULUS sorters inspect whole, washed potatoes鈥攆inding and removing those with defects. The sorters recognize surface abnormalities and diseases such as bumps and notches, skin discoloration, green colors and defects like mechanical damage, scab, cracks and black dot. The system can also be programmed to reject potatoes with dimensions above or below the desired length and width.
鈥淥ver the years, we鈥檝e spoken with different optical sorter suppliers and visited sites across Europe to see a variety of technologies in action,鈥� says John Robinson, engineering manager at Cockerill. 鈥淔or whole potatoes, it鈥檚 clear to us that OCULUS is the winner. In addition to delivering reliable results, it鈥檚 well-built and easy to operate. Among other things, we appreciate the straightforward user interface.鈥�
Herbert OCULUS conveys product over a series of rollers to present a 360掳 view of each tuber to the color cameras. This method of sorting offers gentle handling and provides a reported 20% more surface inspection to maximize defect removal. In addition to capturing images of all "good" and "bad" potatoes, Herbert OCULUS can collect data about the throughput and grading results, including what percentage of the potatoes rejected had each type of defect and the size of the potatoes.
鈥淭hanks to OCULUS, we鈥檝e reduced our reliance on manual labor. We used to have four to eight workers dedicated to manual inspection on each line. We struggled to hire enough people and we struggled to achieve consistent defect removal since workers get tired and tend to remove either too much or too little,鈥� explains Nick Larmour, technical manager at Cockerill. 鈥淥CULUS makes objective, black-and-white sorting decisions hour after hour so we鈥檝e got more consistent final product quality. At the same time, we鈥檝e been able to increase our line throughput by 20% to 25%.鈥�
Cockerill produces more than 1,500 metric tons of potatoes in retail packs for supermarkets every week and even more in bulk to food processors. The company selected midsize Herbert OCULUS systems from Key鈥檚 five available models to handle the line capacities of two to eight metric tons of product per hour.
鈥淓very customer always wants to remove all critical and major defects, but different SKUs allow for various amounts of minor defects, so we program the sorter at the beginning of each product run to meet the exact specifications required,鈥� says Bartosz Wozniak, production manager at Cockerill. 鈥淒uring a product changeover, it takes just a couple of taps on the sorter鈥檚 touchscreen to recall a recipe saved to memory. Or, when we鈥檙e running a brand-new SKU, an operator can create a new sort recipe in less than five minutes by selecting from a list of defect types and choosing the allowable amount of each.鈥�
鈥淎t the end of the day, our success depends on the success of our customers, so providing a reliably high-quality product on time and at an affordable price is vital. Our Herbert OCULUS sorters achieve consistent defect removal at increased throughputs while lowering labor requirements. Plus, they鈥檙e easy to run and maintain,鈥� says Elvidge. 鈥淭his technology has transformed the nature of our business鈥�we can鈥檛 imagine having to operate without our OCULUS sorters again.鈥�
